In midnight move, Bommai cancels anniversay celebrations, sets up commando force

Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai cancelled an official event at Vidhana Soudha, and ‘Janotsava’, a mega rally at Doddaballapur scheduled to be attended by BJP president J P Nadda

BENGALURU: Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai has decided to cancel celebrations to mark his first year in office over the murder of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker and announced the decision to create a new ‘commando force’ to tackle ‘terrorist’ organisations conspiring to create communal unrest in the state and country, the chief minister said early on Thursday.

Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai said the government has decided to raise a specially trained commando force in the state to eliminate anti-national and terrorist forces. (PTI file)

Bommai, 62, who took oath on July 28 last year, said it will not be “appropriate” for to opt for festivities after the murder of a BJP worker in Dakshina Kannada district’s Bellare, about 350 km from state capital Bengaluru.

“From last night after I heard the news of the murder, I was very disturbed and my conscience did not agree after seeing the mother’s pain,” Bommai told reporters outside his residence in Bengaluru past Wednesday midnight.

“Thus far no further,” he said, adding that it was not right to hold the programmes scheduled for Thursday on the outskirts of Bengaluru to celebrate the government’s first anniversary.

The statement comes just over 24 hours after a 32-year-old leader from the BJP youth wing on his way back was hacked to death by three unidentified men late Tuesday night, sparking waves of angry protests across the state and threatening to boil over simmering communal tensions in the coastal district.

Praveen Nettaru, who has been an active member of the BJP Yuva Morcha and was a district committee member, was walking home after shutting his broiler chicken shop in Bellare when three men on a bike attacked him with sharp weapons, police said.

The move to cancel the programme and announce the forming of a new ‘commando force’ with advanced training and weapons to effectively deal with ‘terrorist’ forces appears to be an effort to contain the growing anger among the youth wing of the BJP, many of whom have resigned on Thursday in protest against their own party-ruled government.

“Today looking at all the incidents, this is a very big net. There is a conspiracy in which several organisations want to disrupt harmony in the society, disturb peace, cause harm, stir feelings of hate among common people, rake up communal tensions and create unrest in the country,” Bommai said.

Police said four teams have been formed to track down the killers.

Karnataka BJP leaders are demanding that the government ban the Popular Front of India (PFI), a Kerala-headquartered organisation, which it frequently blames for attacks on its cadre.

Bommai said information was being collected from all states on how to ban certain organisations and added that there was “proof” of the PFI’s actions in Kerala and the high court had also called them out for their “terrorist activities”.

“Such actions to kill any innocent by any organisation with any name and to completely destroy it, there is an existing system. Other than this system, we have taken a decision to form a completely new commando force, intelligence, ammunition, training.... an anti-terrorist, special training anti-terrorist commando force,” Bommai said.

Investigators earlier on Wednesday said Praveen Nettaru’s death was likely to be connected to the recent murder of a young Muslim man in Bellare.

Bommai also blamed the Congress party, which he said, during its tenure (from 2013-18) withdrew nearly 300 cases against troublemakers which led to a kind of “encouragement” to such groups.

He said that during the Siddaramaiah-led government, there were at least 22 such murders in which right-wing members were killed.